That might sound difficult, but countries like Australia and Germany have proven that it’s possible. In the US the average residential solar installation costs $28,000. In Australia it costs $4,000; in Germany it costs $10,000. There’s nothing standing in America’s way of making solar this cheap—except unnecessary red tape.
https://www.distilled.earth/p/rooftop-solar-could-save-americans
Source: Epicurus-fan
5 Comments
That red tape is very important. It was bought and paid for by fossil fuel industry trade associations. It’s not going away any time soon.
Some members of our government would be horrified by the post’s title. All they would see is that the GDP would lose a Trillion dollars if residential solar was widely accepted.
I wasn’t even aware there was red tape. I guess it’s for the electrical? I’ll have to read up on my states laws.
Actually this is incorrect, you only need to ensure the homeowner gets about 8c per kWh for every kWh he exports then the payback is better than a bank loan and they will proceed. Its electric companies that only pay 4c and fuck with local council’s to make it difficult to permit so they Dont have competition for their expensive CCGP, it’s a foul play all round
I speak from experience of installing systems on a house in Australia and the USA. Australian house had the contract signed, then two weeks later the guys took one day to install the system and have it running. USA project had contract signed in May, installed early August and we are still trying to finalize things with the utility company to get permission to operate. I guess it won’t really be finished until I file my tax return and get the tax credits some time next year.